Each year the National
Cherry Blossom Festival is
held in Washington, D.C.,
to mark the beginning of spring in
the nation’s Capital. The Park Hyatt
in Washington, D.C, incorporates its
own tribute to the delicate cherry blossoms
with decorative glass. The hotel
lobby features two freestanding decorative
glass boxes that incorporate images
of the trees. “It’s like a jewelry
box,” says Stephen Beletz of the seemingly
delicate structure; Philadelphia based
Beletz Bros Glass Co. Inc.
installed the glass.

Artist Amanda Weil of Weil Studio
in New York was commissioned to
photograph the famous blossoms.
Next, Los Angeles-based decorative
glass manufacturer Pulp Studio used
DuPont™ SentryGlas® Expressions™
digital interlayer technology to print
the images directly onto the interlayer
of the laminated glass.

Tony Chi and Associates in New
York designed the structure, and worked
with Beletz Bros. to create a structure
that, like the trees it mimics, is seemingly
freestanding while strong enough
to support doors and a roof.

To accomplish this, the glass was fastened
only at the top and bottom of
each wall. At the base of each box is a
½-inch stainless steel plate, upon the
back of which the glaziers customwelded
a deep shoe. “The glass is down
there about 8 inches,” Beletz says.

Simply getting the channels onto
the jobsite proved challenging. The
largest plates measured 12 feet long
and, with the housing for the glass
welded onto it, weighed more than
1,100 pounds. “We had to have 12
people carry it in,” Beletz says.

In addition, a 1 ½-inch stainless steel
channel fits on top like a lid and essentially
locks the glass together.

The freestanding boxes each feature
access doors, which Beletz says blend
near seamlessly into the decorative partitions.
“We were hoping that the
strength of the glass would be enough
that you could hang a door off of it—and it was.”

Since the doors had to blend in, the
hardware certainly couldn’t be visible to visitors. The doors’ floor and head
pivots were recessed into the top and
bottom channels.

The true test of the system came
when it was time to raise it.

“Once we stood the first piece up, 11
feet in the air, [we wondered] was it
going to be strong enough to house a
roof and a door to swing off it?” Beletz
recalls.

The glaziers worked with engineers
that adjusted the depth of the glass into
the bottom frame, but assured the installers
that the structure would stand.

Much of the assembly work was
done onsite, and it provided its share
of challenges. “But,” Beletz says, “for
as big and massive as it was, it went together
really nice.”